Five Actionable Marketing Ideas For Small Businesses

Here are five simple, low cost and in some cases free marketing strategies that you can put together as a small business, whether you are a manufacturer, distributor, reseller or retailer. Theses ideas can be put together right now and you can get them working straight away.

Industry Trade Publications & Magazines

Every single market has an industry trade publication which summarizes the events in the market and these are a great source for you to into because what they are looking for in a lot of cases is free content. If you are someone who is knowledgeable about the industry then producing articles for such publications is a great way to get featured. Simply contact the publication and offer to write for them free of charge as long as they mention your company. This tip also works well online and is a great way to build backlinks to your website. Appearing as the expert in your field is a great way to garner attention and increase sales.

Work With Your Local Chamber of Commerce

Securing a link from from your local chamber of commerce to your website will definitely add a lot of value. Not only will a lot of other local businesses and customers be able to easily find you, but the link will have the added benefit of SEO. Obviously to do this you will have to be a member of the chamber, so get in touch with them to find out about membership options as well as any deals which they may be promoting.

Social Media

This is a very difficult platform to master and there are a lot of companies out there who automatically set up a Facebook page without knowing the best way to use it. If you are a business to consumer company then social media is highly important as it is a great way for customers to leave feedback and get in touch with you, however if you deal business to business you night be wasting your time on Facebook, and LinkedIn may be more appropriate. The good thing about social media is that it costs absolutely nothing to set up.

SMS Marketing

Test message marketing is often overlooked by companies and is something which can be very beneficial depending on which industry you are in. The reason why this kind of marketing is of effective is that it has a 90% open rate, a lot higher than email. It allows you to deliver a focussed message directly to your customers who are most interested in what you have to say. If this is a route that you choose to go down, make sure that you always have new information every time you contact people. or they will soon become annoyed with the messages.

Email Marketing

Like SMS marketing, email marketing is ideally suited to customers and is a very affordable way to keep in touch with people. In order for it to work though, you have to be sending messages to people who actually want to see them. The best way to ensure that you are not sending out hundreds of unwanted emails is to have a sign up form on your website and ask people to confirm that they wish to receive your newsletters by clicking to confirm their email.